


A Game

by Hawkens



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 18:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/827442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkens/pseuds/Hawkens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Star Trek ID Kink Fill:</p>
<p>Just want in a cell and Kirk on the other side of a clear force field wall playing chess and talking before Khan is re-frozen (think end of X-men film).</p>
<p>-------</p>
<p>One last conversation before the deep freeze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Game

"Really? To play Chess? That's what you want? That's ALL you want?"

"Given the parameters of your...generousity, yes. That is what I want."

"Why?"

Kirk stares at Khan agape and receives a slight twitch of the lips smirk in return. Which isn't really much of an answer in Kirk's opinion but apparently it's enough for Bones who makes a snorting sounding noise from somewhere behind him and to the left while scanning him with some sort of medical equipment or other.

That snort turns into a sigh as Bones apparently gets some sort of update he wasn't found of. Turning he finds the CMO frowning at him. "Jim, have I told you how stupid you are lately?"

Sighing, "Not within the last two minutes?"

"You have only JUST woken from the coma two days ago, Jim, two! You can't even stand, barely function! Let alone a game of chess. I don't know how I let you talk me into even helping you come down here in the first place-"

"Obviously you..." Kirk trails off his witty reply that Bones obviously can't resist him with a slight wince as he shifts, painfully aware of the prisoner standing passively in the cell before them. "You know me." He finished plainly, waving his hand. "And I'm not going to pass out seated in this wheelchair for the next 30 minutes so just chill, okay?"

Looking up into Bones' eyes, Kirk found it difficult to read his expression. But, thankfully, he relented.

"Alright. Fine. A half an hour. Not a minute more, and that's starting now by the way, not when you get your damn chess set!"

Careful not to look at Khan, Kirk gave a slight smile just for his best friend. "Thanks Bones! Also, remember, don't tell Spock! And while you're at it-"

"Get someone else to get the damn chess set, Jim!" Bones shouted behind him as he kept walking, anticipating Kirk's next request. "I'm a doctor not a servant!"

\---------------------

Now this may sound hard to believe but Kirk is kind of a genius. In so many areas, and one of them being chess. Not that he usually likes to brag, but it is one of his favorite games. But here's the other thing. It's actually -really- really difficult to think as quickly as he normally does, brilliantly, insightfully - only a few hours removed from the hospital.

The person he was playing hardly had a thing to do with it. In fact, the prisoner barely seemed to be aware that they were actually playing a game. Kirk took his time to move and when he was done, Khan made his own move in return immediately, only his hand allowed to stretch out of his cell to move the piece - after all Kirk is a genius not a moron planning on giving Khan the possibility of escape. There was a reason he was a grade A top security prisoner.

A prisoner who, oddly enough, had actually saved his life. And that's what it really came down to. No matter how many things Khan had done wrong - and he had, was going to pay for them in a matter of hours - Jim could not shake the strange feeling like...like he owed him something.

"For one who seems to require so much time and thought put into his moves, your strategy is rather elementary." Khan comments as he easily swipes another of Kirk's pawns.

Frowning, Kirk struggles not to respond to the dig. But he was never good at controlling his emotions, that was Spock's area of expertise. "Maybe I'm sacrificing them for the greater good? After all if even one of my pieces survive after the game, I've won." Even as he says the words they sound foreign to him. Maybe he was thinking -too- much of Spock.

Even Khan's eyes flickered up at him, shaking his head ever so slightly. "Not your style. Bluffing doesn't suit you, _Captain_."

"And what exactly do you think you know about my _style_ , Khan?" Kirk asked, using the same inflection on 'style' as Khan did upon mocking his title. "What makes you think you know a damn thing about me?" Almost to accompany his point Kirk took the risk and swooped in to capture Khan's Rook even though it left his Knight in dangerous territory.

Eyes reassessing the board, Khan replied while taking his next move, taking Kirk's Bishop while at the same time backing up defense of his own Queen. "I know you well enough, _Captain_ , I have, after all saved your life 3 times now. Do you think I would bother with a pawn I cannot predict?"

Gripping a hand on the arm of his wheelchair, Kirk found himself rapidly losing focus on the game. "In case you hadn't noticed, _Khan_ , I am the Captain. I have _my_ crew. In what way am I the pawn of a guy who is about to go back into cryo?" Blinking down at the board, Kirk moved a piece almost at random, too focused on the conversation.

A nasty smile crossed Khan's face. "You don't even see it. You are a pawn to your own _ethics_ , Kirk. You would've been better served to listen to your doctor, than sit here to play a game with me, but you couldn't because your _honor_ demanded that you try and pay me back, or at least find out _why_." Khan lifted his hand to run his fingers over his own Queen, eyes still fixed on Kirk.

"But I will not give you the _satisfaction_ of an answer. There are many reasons I have done what I have done. Some I have told you, I have more, which are my own, but you know that, you sense it within me don't you, _Captain_? For all that I am super human, my emotions remain intact. I love, I lust, I laugh, I cry. I have motivation. I could be better if things had gone different, I could be _you_ , Jimmy." Khan sneers as he takes Kirk's Queen, laying it next to the numerous other pieces he has claimed. "You could no sooner condemn me to death than you could yourself. So you'll put me in cryo. And when you and your children's children are long dead, _I_ will be there _Because_ of you, because of your honor, and you owe me."

As though from a distance, Kirk can hear the door at the far end of the room hiss open. Knowing he instructed the guards not to disrupt them, he knows it's Bones. He knows their time is up, and really he's fine with that. Glancing back at his friend, Kirk starts to shift before looking at the chess board, and here he laughs. Loud and long. Just the look on Khan's face is worth it.

For all his dumb luck seemed to have left him the perfect opening. And Khan had been too distracted by his own words and his overzealousness to take Kirk's Queen, he seemed to have underestimated his opponent.

Feebly leaning forward, Kirk moved his pawn one move toward Khan's King. As close as to his face he could get, Kirk smirked. "Checkmate."

"Kirk, for the love of God get your fucking ass back in that chair!" Bones rushed to his side, taking his arm and easing him back down.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going I'm going." Kirk replied, resting his hands back on the wheels as Bones turned him around.

Silence was all he heard from Khan until he got halfway back up the hall and he threw out his arm, signaling to Bones to stop so he could half turn back. "They're alive." He called out to Khan to who looked up sharply from the board he still seemed to be trying to study.

A full and enthused complete James Kirk smile lit his face. "All of them. Thanks to Spock, actually! Safe and sound. 72..." he blew out a whistle, before retracting his hand and allowing Bones to wheel him away, muttering under his breath.

But Kirk didn't care. He was happy. Because now Khan knew the score. That because of _his_ friends, Khan owed them. And would pay it with his life imprisoned.


End file.
